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New kitchen woes, should I expect compensation?

linnfomaniac83

linnfomaniac83

I bet you can’t wheelie a unicycle!
After moving into a new (to me) property a year ago, I decided a couple of weeks back that it was time to replace the old app very tired kitchen.
Everything was due to be delivered to me on Friday, come early evening, nothing had arrived so I contacted the supplier to find out what was going on. They apologised and said there had been an error on the system and that everything would arrive Tuesday, that wasted a day, screwed my plans and meant that I had to mess tradesmen around, I was annoyed but there was nothing I could do about it.
Everything arrived yesterday and I began fitting, roll on this morning, I’ve found seven doors damaged and they’re making me wait until next Tuesday for replacements. It’s totally thrown me out and delayed getting the job finished. I asked what they were going to do with regards to compensation and they said they would’nt do anything until everything was delivered in good condition, after that they may consider a good will gesture (like they’d be doing me a favour). What should I be expecting from them? I still have to buy tiles which were going to come from the same retailer, should I ask for a healthy discount on those?
 
I suggest you list the problems caused by the late delivery and the damaged items. Put a value on each of them, be realistic/reasonable. If the tradesmen lost a day’s earnings, they might expect somebody to make that up to them, for example. But don’t make stuff up, or over-egg it, or you’ll destroy your credibility. Damaged doors don’t prevent the installation, just delay completion, but it may require a tradesman for an unscheduled extra half day if they don’t replace before the rest of the work is finished, for example. See how the numbers come out. That might tell you how to take it forward.
 
Sue Pertwee-Tyr said:
I suggest you list the problems caused by the late delivery and the damaged items. Put a value on each of them, be realistic/reasonable. If the tradesmen lost a day’s earnings, they might expect somebody to make that up to them, for example. But don’t make stuff up, or over-egg it, or you’ll destroy your credibility. Damaged doors don’t prevent the installation, just delay completion, but it may require a tradesman for an unscheduled extra half day if they don’t replace before the rest of the work is finished, for example. See how the numbers come out. That might tell you how to take it forward.
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Cheers, I’ll be completely honest with them, my nephew damaged one door with a hammer before I even had the chance to take it off him, I didn’t include that in the damaged doors, I just bought another one, and no, the damaged doors won’t delay installation of anything else, it’s just an inconvenience, but that on top of a late delivery has really got me wound up. The tradesmen are friends but I still want to pay them for lost earnings. I’m doing some of the work, including fitting the doors myself. I’m not expected the world from them but a “£10 off your next kitchen order” would just be insulting. If I spend £400 on tiles, 20% off that would be appreciated, and probably wouldn’t eat their profit on those items so I was thinking that would be a reasonable ask.
 
So ask them for 20% off. It doesn't seem out of the way, and it will leave you happy. If they refuse then tell them politely that this has cost them a £400 tile order and all future business, goodbye.
 
A lot of suppliers have a clause whereby they will replace transit/packaging damaged items but they exempt themselves from any fitting/installation labour.

Hope you get it all sorted

Bloss
 
stevec67 said:
So ask them for 20% off. It doesn't seem out of the way, and it will leave you happy. If they refuse then tell them politely that this has cost them a £400 tile order and all future business, goodbye.
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I think that’s the route I will take, I don’t want to be greedy and I don’t think 20% off my tile order is being greedy. I’m amazed at how many doors were damaged though, it’s a third of them!

On the plus side, when it’s all done, it’ll look stunning. My current kitchen is properly horrible and I’ve been embarrassed by it every time I get a new visitor and soon it’ll be a room I’m proud of.

With regards to future business, my mother and my sister have seen my kitchen going in and started thinking about doing theirs too, if this all ends well, they’ll be even more tempted.
 
Doors are relatively unimportant in the scheme of things. The installation of the base, wall units and the worktop are far more important.
 
Rodrat said:
Doors are relatively unimportant in the scheme of things. The installation of the base, wall units and the worktop are far more important.
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Yeah, that’s well underway now, albeit delayed because of the order being delivered late already. It’s just disheartening because it’d have been fully fitted and ready for tiling by now if things hadn’t gone wrong. I’m feeling fatigued already (I get like that at the best of times with my medical conditions), I just want it all finished, I’m not one for dragging things out, I like to turn things around fast and efficiently. I’ve got a list of other jobs to get on with. The end is in sight though. It should be fully fitted and tiled within the next two weeks. I have it to a point where I can cook again, I cooked tea for the first time in a week tonight.
 
gintonic said:
ours took three weeks longer to fit due to delivery cock ups.

Compensation, nah, no chance
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Ridiculous isn’t it? It really shouldn’t be difficult for large company with plenty of stock to just get it delivered on time and in one piece. I’m a very small business with limited resources but I don’t keep my customers waiting, I give them what they’ve paid for, usually sooner but never later than the projected delivery time... only right now, my office is full of kitchen components so that’s more difficult.
 
Depends how you plan. I did a Christmas dinner with my Dad, who is utterly useless in the kitchen. A man of his generation. My Mum was unwell. I planned it as a food manufacturing operation and whipped him through it. He's an engineer, followed the instructions. We had it all ready to go 20 minutes before time, looked at each other and said "might as well start eating then" . It was fine, with far less conflict than my mum's usual seat of the pants approach and a meal 2 hours later than planned.
 
stevec67 said:
Depends how you plan. I did a Christmas dinner with my Dad, who is utterly useless in the kitchen. A man of his generation. My Mum was unwell. I planned it as a food manufacturing operation and whipped him through it. He's an engineer, followed the instructions. We had it all ready to go 20 minutes before time, looked at each other and said "might as well start eating then" . It was fine, with far less conflict than my mum's usual seat of the pants approach and a meal 2 hours later than planned.
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You wanted it to take 20 minutes longer! I bet it wasn't as nice as your Mum's Christmas Dinner either.
 
Par for the course with most of these things these days . If you don't get some sort of satisfactory outcome threaten to write about your experience/problems with them on social media ( Facebook etc. ) That has worked for me on a couple of occasions .
 
I've given up with trades and suppliers being on time. If they are on time, then its a bonus. I just think I don't have that kind of luck, where things like this go to plan.

We are going thru a kitchen refit - they turned up last Monday, but mid morning we find out the job should have been put back a week due to the bespoke doors not being delivered to the supplier. The supplier knew about this, but didn't let us know. we therefore have 10 days without a functioning kitchen. Hopefully should be finished by this weekend. I'll still owe the supplier 10% after completion of the job, so I'll be having a chat with them about the inconvenience caused etc.
 
The only time I had a new kitchen in my life was back in 1999, at the end of major extension and refit of the whole house. Since sold.

We had a ordered a mid-range German kitchen. The company said it would take 2 days to install. Our builder scoffed big time, said it could not happen in less than 2 weeks.

Well, it turned up in a rather large truck. Ready built units. Unloaded and the truck disappeared.

Next day one guy turned up - middle aged type. He, on his own, fitted the kitchen in less than 2 days. This was £15,000 worth of cabinets and worktops, sinks, plus dual ovens and Propane hob. There was not a single screw missing, or extra. The worktops were pre-cut and ready to fit. How the heck the designer measured those accurately enough in an empty room months earlier I do not know. Amazing.

The only thing we had to do was get the tiling done a few days later - that took longer.

So it can be done, but perhaps you need Germanic efficiency to do it.

The company we chose was also the only outfit to do good things:

1. The designer did not just draw what we thought we wanted - he actually went through the whole 'workflow' and usage, how many people would be working in it etc. Soon put us off installing the range cooker we though we wanted. It was a brilliant kitchen to use when finished.

2. He calculated the price and that was that. EVERY other company calculated a price and then started a conversation of 'well, we are having a promotion right now, so if you order this week it is this price or if you order today you can have it at this even better price.. and by the way would you like some finance quotes' and so on. You never could tell what the true 'price' of the kitchen was. I got so pissed off. I walked out of one showroom that started that conversation before we had even discussed what we were looking for!
 
JensenHealey said:
The only time I had a new kitchen in my life was back in 1999, at the end of major extension and refit of the whole house. Since sold.

We had a ordered a mid-range German kitchen. The company said it would take 2 days to install. Our builder scoffed big time, said it could not happen in less than 2 weeks.

Well, it turned up in a rather large truck. Ready built units. Unloaded and the truck disappeared.

Next day one guy turned up - middle aged type. He, on his own, fitted the kitchen in less than 2 days. This was £15,000 worth of cabinets and worktops, sinks, plus dual ovens and Propane hob. There was not a single screw missing, or extra. The worktops were pre-cut and ready to fit. How the heck the designer measured those accurately enough in an empty room months earlier I do not know. Amazing.

The only thing we had to do was get the tiling done a few days later - that took longer.

So it can be done, but perhaps you need Germanic efficiency to do it.

The company we chose was also the only outfit to do good things:

1. The designer did not just draw what we thought we wanted - he actually went through the whole 'workflow' and usage, how many people would be working in it etc. Soon put us off installing the range cooker we though we wanted. It was a brilliant kitchen to use when finished.

2. He calculated the price and that was that. EVERY other company calculated a price and then started a conversation of 'well, we are having a promotion right now, so if you order this week it is this price or if you order today you can have it at this even better price.. and by the way would you like some finance quotes' and so on. You never could tell what the true 'price' of the kitchen was. I got so pissed off. I walked out of one showroom that started that conversation before we had even discussed what we were looking for!
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we got ours from Wickes, my experience with their designer was spot on. He did the work flow etc. We had 4 visits.

He didn't even get flustered when I said I was buying a tambour unit from elsewhere and my two stainless worktops from a company that fitted out chip shops. His service was free, the price was clear and unambiguous.

I did all the fitting myself. Apart from trouble with the delivery and sending the wrong door handles it went well. Not bad for about £3k. It is still standing and looking as new 10 years later. Although we are thinking of replacing one of the regular worktops with something different soon.
 
stevec67 said:
Depends how you plan. I did a Christmas dinner with my Dad, who is utterly useless in the kitchen. A man of his generation. My Mum was unwell. I planned it as a food manufacturing operation and whipped him through it. He's an engineer, followed the instructions. We had it all ready to go 20 minutes before time, looked at each other and said "might as well start eating then" . It was fine, with far less conflict than my mum's usual seat of the pants approach and a meal 2 hours later than planned.
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And did you tell your mum this? :)
 
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